The Churches of Coventry: A Short History of the City & Its Medieval RemainsWoodhouse, Frederic W.
History
The Churches of Coventry: A Short History of the City & Its Medieval Remains
Woodhouse, Frederic W.
Churches -- England -- Coventry; Coventry (England) -- History
Some have thought that the apsidal Lady Chapel of Lichfield Cathedral
built about fifty years earlier suggested an apsidal termination in
the design of Coventry, but a certain difficulty in the way of the
designer may have led him to adopt this solution. The normal
Perpendicular east end had one large window, but owing to the great
width of this chancel the proportions of such a one would have been
nearly square, and the spring of the arch have been very low. A few
years later and the depressed four-centred arch might have been
adopted but, fortunately, its time was not yet.
The plans of the apses of Lichfield and Coventry differ in the angle
at which the sides are inclined to the chord of the apse, the former
having the usual angle of 45°, the latter one of more than 60°.
Externally this is not so pleasant as the more "commonplace" form, the
great dissimilarity of the several angles being unsatisfactory and the
third side too quickly lost to view, but within the church these
points are not noticed.
So little time elapsed between the building of the choir and nave that
we find no marked difference of style as we proceed westward along
either flank of the church. The =Lady Chapel=, known as the Drapers'
Chapel, from its use and maintenance by that Gild, occupies the three
bays of the North chancel aisle. From its elevation above the ground
it was often spoken of as the "Chapel on the Mount," Capella Beatæ
Mariæ de Monte. All the four windows are of seven lights, the three
northern having a somewhat unusual transom band of fourteen
quatrefoils, at the spring of the arch. The two windows of St.
Lawrence's Chapel have a transom across the lights and a band of seven
quatrefoils at the spring.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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